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Twin Cities Metro Fishing Report

Measured · 4 gauges reporting · 3:24 PM EDT on September 28, 2026

Metro water: the lower St. Croix, the Vermillion and the urban creeks — the trout water closest to three million people.

Right now

Twin Cities Metro water is running 61–64°F across 4 gauges reporting in the last 6 hours. 3 are in prime shape — Shingle Creek at 61°F, St Croix River at 63°F, Rice Creek at 63°F. One sits in the 64–70°F transitional band, where the fish are catchable early and should be left alone by mid-afternoon. Air peaks at 76°F on Wed, and water will follow it up by roughly half that — move to first light before it lands, and 0.9″ of rain in the window will bump flows and cool the freestones.

Every temperature behind the clock on this page is a measurement — USGS water temperature at a real gauge, taken within 6 hours of the reading's own hour. Hours ahead of the last measurement are projected from the hourly air forecast and are labelled as projected. That is also why the lists below are only as long as the gauge network is dense — a river with no gauge on it has nothing measured to report.

Data refreshed nightly, current-hour rendered live — this page carries 24 hours of measured water behind 3:24 PM EDT on September 28, 2026 and 48 ahead of it, and shows the hour you are reading it in.

Streams by condition

The bands are the map's own: the same breaks BirdTrout paints water with, so a stream that is green here is green there.

Hatching right now

Nothing is at peak emergence here this month. Terrestrials and nymphs carry the water between hatches.

Next three days

Air peaks at 76°F on Wed, and water will follow it up by roughly half that — move to first light before it lands, and 0.9″ of rain in the window will bump flows and cool the freestones.

Air, not water. Water follows smoothed air with a sensitivity well below one — a spring creek barely feels a hot afternoon and a shallow freestone nearly tracks it — so this table is a direction, and the measurements above are the answer.

What the water is classed as

196 classified stream miles in Twin Cities, by MN DNR Chapter 6264 designation. This is the standing classification, not today's temperature — it is what the water is normally, which is the context the readings above sit in.

More water in Twin Cities

Rivers here with a full BirdTrout page — survey history, access, public land and regulations — whether or not a gauge is reporting on them this hour.

• Belle Creek
• Bullard Creek
• Hay Creek
• Lawrence Creek
• Pine Creek
• South Branch Vermillion River
• Spring Creek
• Trout Brook
• Trout Brook
• Valley Branch
• Vermillion River

Before you go

Other regions

• Boundary Waters
• North Shore
• Iron Range
• Minnesota Driftless

Other states

• Michigan
• Wisconsin
• Virginia
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania
• Ohio
• New York
• West Virginia

See this water on the map →Every reach coloured by today's water temperature, starting at the coldest reading in this report.